Rep. Allyson Schwartz seen as liberal but ranks as a moderate

She's graded as more conservative than other Pa. Democrats in U.S. House.

February 06, 2014|By Colby Itkowitz, Call Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Democrat Allyson Schwartz was no more liberal in 2013 than Republican Charlie Dent was conservative.

Yet since announcing her bid for statewide office, the recurring question around the Montgomery County congresswoman's candidacy for governor is whether she's too liberal to win over voters in the middle and western parts of Pennsylvania.

Just Thursday, an email from the Republican Governors Association referenced Schwartz's "liberal environmentalist allies." If she wins the Democratic nomination in May, Republicans will paint her time running a health clinic that performed abortions like a scarlet L on her chest.

Yet a review of Schwartz's congressional rankings over her more than nine years on Capitol Hill show that she's been as centrist as Dent — whose name is rarely mentioned without "moderate" before it — and more conservative than other Pennsylvania Democrats in the U.S. House.

The breakdown, which the magazine compiled based on 111 votes cast last year, is consistent with Schwartz's record over her career. Since 2009, she's been at nearly the same percentages, give or take a few points. In her first two years in office, 2005 and 2006, she tilted more liberal on the spectrum, scoring around 75 percent liberal to 25 percent conservative.

Moreover, Schwartz was more than 10 points less liberal than other Democrats in the state's delegation, including Rep. Matt Cartwright, whose voting record in his first term scored him as 84 percent liberal and 15 percent conservative. Cartwright's district includes Easton and northern Northampton County.

Muhlenberg College political pollster Chris Borick said despite Schwartz's centrist voting record, it will be difficult for her to overcome the liberal name-calling from Republicans. And that may worry party Democrats intent on seizing the governor's mansion from Gov. Tom Corbett, whose poll numbers are abysmal.

"For Allyson Schwartz, the idea that she has a record that is sometimes more to the center than one might expect is something she'll want to emphasize," Borick said, "but it will come up against quite an effort from her opponents to counter."

Although seven Democrats are vying for their party's nomination, Corbett and other national Republican voices have focused early on Schwartz, who has had a higher profile because of her time in Congress representing parts of Montgomery County.

Of course, Schwartz, in a crowded primary field, also has to shield herself from attacks from her left.

Under pressure from liberal groups, Schwartz in December stepped down as honorary chairwoman of Third Way, a think tank critical of progressive Democrats' agenda, and quit the New Democratic Coalition, a group of pro-business moderate Democrats.

In her latest tug-of-war, Schwartz was criticized on liberal blogs for voting for the farm bill because the bloggers opposed its cuts in funding to the food stamp program. By comparison, Democrats Cartwright and Sen. Bob Casey voted against the bill because of the cuts.

Neil Sroka, communications director at Democracy for America, a progressive political advocacy group founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, wouldn't comment specifically on Schwartz's ideology, but said the rankings aren't the best gauge of a lawmaker's place on the political spectrum.

"The thing that differentiates a progressive from a run-of-the-mill Democrat is they don't run away when branded a progressive," Sroka said.

Of Schwartz, he would say only that her resignation from Third Way after the group criticized expansion of Social Security would "at least be a move in your favor in terms of how you're viewed by progressives."

But whether it's better for her election chances to be branded a liberal or a centrist remains to be seen.